This blog is a place where I intend to record as much as I can of life with my husband Blake, our daughters Cayton, Vivian and Penelope and our out of control group of animals that tend to make life more chaotic, I mean exciting...

Friday, June 26, 2009

I'm sorry to say that I finally fell behind in my attempt to post a new blog every Wednesday. But, in my defense, I had a good reason. I was in Norman being a good sister, sitting bedside while my sister had her gall bladder removed. I am very happy to say that she is a tough bird and is recovering quite nicely. But, sadly, I was in no mood to sit at my computer and write when I got home Wednesday evening. I was really, really irritated about the sorry state of I-35, both north and south bound. It took the rest of my evening to vent to Blake about how no one should be expected to drive on that crap piece of "road". Blake's Bose noise canceling earphones should be here anyday...

So, family emergencies having been dealt with, it's back to the grind here on the farm. With all due respect to my sister, I did thoroughly enjoy just hanging out with my family on surgery day while Blake dealt with the girls. I haven't had a break from my not-so-benevolent dictators in several weeks and it was nice to just let it all go. Plus, it was way fun to hang out with my sister, even though she was not having such a good time. But, with my family, the crazier the situation, the better. All the best jokes and one-liners get going when we all get nervous.

Anyway, I think I should start circling back around to what I really wanted to discuss in this post and that is the fact that my girls seem to think that anything that I have is much, much more desirable than anything they have. This is especially true when it comes to drinks. For some reason, a certain number of people in this house are obsessed with tea. If I poured it in the toilet, they would grab a straw and go at it. I don't know what it is. I mean, I like tea as much as the next person, but really? There are practically hair pulling fights over glasses of tea!

So, it goes without saying, if I should attempt to drink a glass of tea, a couple of short people who live here come running. I don't know if they have some kind of tea sensor or what, but even if I pour some tea and hide my glass somewhere, they can find it and demand their share. With Viv, it's especially irritating because she plants her feet, drops her pacifier, points and grunts until you are willing to just give her the tea jug and walk away. Cayton is a little more stylish in her approach, opting to sidle up to the tea glass while I am not looking. Later, when I reach for my glass, I find only an empty vessel with half melted ice.

I am afraid that this behavior is going to bleed over into other areas. For instance, they generally like to eat whatever is on MY plate. If I sit down, suddenly that is the hottest property in the house. My jewelry is irresistible and I won't even get started on my phone or my computer.

God knows, I love my babies to distraction, but I think I am going to have to put a stop to this constant claim staking of my property. I don't have that much left that is mine and I know where this will eventually lead in the end. They will take everything I have until they get to the very last and most precious of my possessions: my sanity (such as it is).

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Thanks to some cajoling from my brilliant husband, I enrolled the girlies in a summer preschool program. Now, every Wednesday, I have five beautiful hours all to myself. Initially, when B mentioned this idea, I was resistant. It had something to do with my natural reluctance to agree with him on most topics and then I also thought it was a bit of a waste of money. After all, didn't I quit my job to stay home and spend time with my girls? Obviously, it had been a while since I had time to myself and I had forgotten the almost obscene luxury of being able to think only of myself. Needless to say (but I will anyhow), time alone is worth the cost.

Now, on Tuesday evenings, I start thinking about what I'm going to do with my time. Should I call a friend and go to lunch? Should I spend some time working on my hobbies? What will I ever do with all the time??? See, when there is actual quiet time, my brain goes crazy. It's almost like that feeling you get when you have a really big gift certificate to spend. The sheer number of possibilities is overwhelming. I often find that I get analysis paralysis since I feel as though anything I decide to do ought to be grand given that Wednesdays don't just happen everyday.

As you can guess, one thing I've decided to do is write a little on this blog. I am hoping to contribute a little more regularly than I have in the past. Considering the fact that I can actually think in such beautiful silence, maybe I won't have too much trouble sticking to my new routine. But who knows? Maybe I'll just take a nap instead.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

This was pretty much it. We sat on the beach for a solid week and it was nice. I did learn however, that sitting for a whole week is a little much for me. While it sounds nice to have nothing else to do, it gets a bit tedious just holding down a beach chair. I think my next beach vacation will have to be somewhere near tourist attractions or other diversions. By day three, I have to get dressed and go see something. I'm just a crazy tourist and I MUST go tour something when I'm on vacation! But, it was a great relaxing week and we did actually go see Fort Morgan, which is a military installation that dates back to the 1830s and was used heavily during the Civil War. The fort was used off and on in other wars with it finally being abandoned after WWII. It was great to see it and the views were worth the work of climbing around on the old stairways.

After the tour of Fort Morgan, we took the ferry over to Dauphin Island. It was a beautiful place, but I was very glad that we didn't end up staying there. It seemed to me a place for locals to go to escape all of us tourists. It was extremely quiet and there weren't many restaurants or attractions. I think maybe the major pastime there would have been fishing. Don't get me wrong, I like to fish, but I don't know that the other Doerrs would have really enjoyed it too much (especially since they don't eat the stuff!).